Find out more about 3-D printing online. Here are some resources, as well as more information about the 3-D printer being sold in Oklahoma City, the MendelMax 2:

Jeff Davis, CEO of Maker's Tool Works, with the 3D printer manufactured at Makers Tool Works in Oklahoma City Wednesday, July 3, 2013. Photo by Paul B. Southerland, The Oklahoman

Maker's Tool Works

For information about Maker's Tool Works, the Oklahoma City-based company now selling the MendelMax 2 3-D printer, go to makerstoolworks.com.

The company's standard printer is $1,595 for a kit that buyers build themselves. Like many 3-D printers, the MendelMax can use several different types of plastic filament to print — including the botanically derived Polylactic Acid, or PLA, or the strong, petroleum-based acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). Lego bricks use ABS, for example.

The filament to supply the printer costs $36 per kilogram, and a 1-inch by 1-inch by 1-inch solid cube would cost about 15 cents to print, Makers Tool Works CEO Jeff Davis said. The printer can print objects about 12 inches high and 8 to 9 inches wide. How many objects a spool of filament will print depends on the density of the print that people choose, similar to the “fast draft” or “best quality” settings choices available for paper printers.